What’s Memorial Day weekend going to look like this year? Miami Beach has big plans.

Police officers were in force during Urban Beach Week festivities on South Beach in 2016. Miami Beach is trying to reshape the holiday weekend with city-sponsored events. CARL JUSTEcjuste@miamiherald.com

Police officers were in force during Urban Beach Week festivities on South Beach in 2016. Miami Beach is trying to reshape the holiday weekend with city-sponsored events. CARL JUSTEcjuste@miamiherald.com

Miami Beach has big plans for Memorial Day this year as the city attempts to reshape a holiday weekend that typically draws tens of thousands of young people for the loosely affiliated hip hop concerts and parties known as Urban Beach Week.

The city plans to spend $250,000 on a concert and another $100,000 on a packed cultural events calendar, which is still being finalized, that will likely include a gospel performance, a celebrity basketball game, a movie screening and a barbecue contest. That’s in addition to hosting a military-themed Air and Sea Show for a second year.

Large crowds gathered on sunny South Beach Saturday to take in the sights of the Air and Sea Show.

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In an unusual move, Miami Beach has also authorized up to a dozen special event permits for area hotels in the hopes that they will host smaller cultural events like book readings and fashion shows to draw revelers to other areas of South Beach. The city typically doesn’t issue special event permits for hotels on Memorial Day weekend because the crowd is already so large.

We want a cultural explosion. What we don’t want to do is exclude anyone.”

“We want a cultural explosion,” said Ruban Roberts, the NAACP’s representative on a panel that is helping plan Miami Beach’s festivities. “What we don’t want to do is exclude anyone.”

The city-sponsored events are part of an effort to give Memorial Day weekend a new identity on Miami Beach following a deadly shooting that scarred an otherwise peaceful holiday weekend last year.

Urban Beach Week has long sparked controversy both because of security concerns and because the event, which draws primarily young, African-American visitors, has seen a heightened police presence and increased crowd-control measures that have been criticized by civil liberties groups.

After last year’s shooting, tensions surrounding the event came to a head when then-Commissioner Michael Grieco called for an end to Urban Beach Week and Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez told the city manager in an email that “We need to give the cops back their bullets” and remove their body cameras.

Miami Beach officials give an update on the shooting in Miami Beach on Sunday evening. One person was shot and killed following a dispute over a parking space. Police then shot and killed a suspect following a chase.

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The comments prompted an outcry from the NAACP, whose local leaders felt that trying to end the festivities would unfairly single out African-American visitors. In response, the city formed a panel with African-American community leaders and a representative from the hotel industry to discuss the weekend and come up with events that could provide an alternative to drinking and club-hopping.

None of us, I think, like to see just this massive street party. We don’t like it during Spring Break and we don’t like it during Memorial Day weekend so we’re going to do things that people want to do to kick off the summer.”

Miami Beach Commissioner Ricky Arriola

“None of us, I think, like to see just this massive street party,” Commissioner Ricky Arriola, the panel chair, said during the group’s meeting on Thursday afternoon. “We don’t like it during Spring Break and we don’t like it during Memorial Day weekend so we’re going to do things that people want to do to kick off the summer.”

Arriola said he envisions turning Miami Beach into a national destination for the holiday weekend and making it “the biggest premier event in the country” for African-Americans in addition to attracting other visitors.

But as with any major event on the beach, the massive crowds during Memorial Day weekend can be a challenge. The city hopes that offering a variety of events throughout South Beach, including at hotels, will spread the partygoers throughout the area to avoid crowd control issues like the ones that prompted police to temporarily shut down eastbound lanes on the MacArthur Causeway during Spring Break.

“Few cities in the world face the challenge of too many visitors,” said Mayor Dan Gelber. “Our hope is that by providing programming we control, we will diminish aspects of the weekend that previously have been difficult to control.”

Atlanta, Georgia vacationers Glen Winbush and Aminia Cole cozy up at a South Beach crosswalk on their way to the beach during Memorial Day weekend in 2013. Miami Beach is trying to reshape the holiday weekend with city-sponsored events.

MARSHA HALPER Miami Herald Staff

Miami Beach police plan to continue the same traffic plan used in previous years, implement residential access restrictions and use license plate readers to ensure safety, said spokesman Ernesto Rodriguez.

Organizers also hope to launch a national marketing campaign to advertise a broader vision of the weekend beyond the hip hop concerts and parties and to make sure visitors know the city’s rules ahead of time. The Memorial Day panel is asking the City Commission to authorize funding for the campaign at its upcoming April 11 meeting.

In addition, the city is hosting a public event to discuss plans for Memorial Day weekend on April 18 at 6 p.m. at The Betsy Hotel.

Roberts told the Memorial Day panel on Thursday that he hopes residents and visitors will feel welcome in Miami Beach this year and “be responsible in having their good time.”

“I think that what happens is that we party in silos and I think that if we are able to have fun together then we’re able to live together,” he said. “Instead of building walls we want to build bridges and I think this is the perfect opportunity for Miami Beach to be on the forefront of that.”